Does Business Coaching Work? The story of my journey

When I was first introduced to the concept of business coaching, it was not something I had considered for my business. A lot of the time people spoke of business consultants but that often had a negative connotation.

With business coaching, they often say "when the student is ready, the coach will appear" and that is exactly what happened with me a year ago. 

I had never thought to go to business seminars but then I came across JT Foxx's event on a friend of mines facebook page. This was Friday afternoon and the event was Saturday morning. I just figured I had nothing to lose and I knew we needed to do something different but I did not know how. I registered and went with my business partner and we had no idea what to expect. We had never heard of JT Foxx but when we had the opportunity to meet him and learn from him we could understand why everyone spoke so highly of him. JT Foxx (Worlds #1 wealth coach) immediately became my role model as I knew this was an individual I could look up to and learn from. People often talk about a switch going off and that is exactly what had happened that weekend.

First Event

As the year has gone on, I have seen the growth in our business but predominantly in myself. One of my biggest fears was that I would not be able to take over the business and I would run it into the ground but I no longer fear that. I know with the support and guidance from my family, friends and my coaches I can not go wrong. Business now excites me and the challenges it poses only motivates me to succeed and push myself harder. The high level individuals I have met this last year and have the fortune to call friends have opened opportunities and created connections that are invaluable.

How business coaching helped my business:

This past year our business has grown by 21%. We have expanded our product lines, moved from 200m2 warehouse to 600m2 warehouse and even that is too small now. Expanded into 2 new countries. Started to supply bakery equipment which is our newest business venture (Bakery in a Box) and opened a training school for bakeries. We now analyse our numbers and have implemented more systems and feedback mechanisms. This is only a few of the changes our business has undergone since we have received business coaching. 

This is why I can say business coaching does work if you do these 2 things:

1. take action AND 
2. have the correct coach.

 Some highlights of my year with my business coach.

Meeting and Learning from Jay Abraham

Speaking on Cliff Central

Meeting Michelle Mone

Myself with JT Foxx and Sylvester Stallone

Myself with Steve Wozniak and JT Foxx

Backstage at the worlds number 1 networking event

Honours Graduation

One of SA's original millionaire underdog

Sharing the success of my business in front of 450 entrepreneurs

Learn how to become an organisation that stimulates growth through your employees

In order for your organisation to thrive, there needs to be continuous growth for your employees. Stimulating your employees in there normal everyday tasks forces continuous personal development and gives individuals a sense of achievement and ownership for strategic initiatives.

Why would you want to be an organisation that consciously stimulates growth through your employees?

Firstly, employees keep doing the same thing day in and day out and soon they become complacent in work tasks as a result of lack of stimulation. This can result in mistakes and poor performance from your employees as a result of this complacency culture that develops. 

Secondly, the growth of an organisation is limited to a few key individuals that can come up with a number of innovations and strategic initiatives to propel a business forward. These individuals will not work in each department and may not necessarily have an ear on the ground like an individual that is working in that department. This may result in transactional strategies created for each department instead of transformational strategies that could give your organisation the competitive advantage you need.

Therefore: Imagine if you could get 5 people within a certain department to come up with 3 strategies. If you only implement 2 or 3 of those 15 strategies, your organisation will continuously grow and strengthen in each department.

How to become an organisation that stimulates growth through your employees:

1. Get ARTICLES online weekly for each department that is relevant to each department.

• Example for sales department: What is the difference between benefit and feature?

2. Get your employees in each department to read these articles WITH A DEADLINE.

• Read and report back to me by next week Wednesday.

3. Ask questions on these articles. 

• Example: 
1. How does this apply to our business? 
2. Can we use anything from what you learnt in these article in our business, 
3. If so, how and why?

4. Get employees to discuss their findings and results with each other in that department.

• Our features are...
• Our benefits are...
• We can translate this to the customer by...

5. Come up with blueprints and strategic plans on how to implement ideas and concepts that were created. 

• Need an implementation plan to see these ideas through or else they will just remain ideas.

6. On a monthly basis, get employees to read BOOKS on their relevant departments and present their findings to each other as well as you.

• You can always learn more about each department.
• Individuals often retain more information when they teach it to someone else.

In today's' information era, there is no excuse for a lack of personal education and development. 

Very often individuals just need accountability and they will do what is being asked and eventually you will not have to ask because the results will be seen. A culture that strives for growth and encourages strategy will propel an organisation to achieve monumental growth.